


Snicker Snack

by satan_copilots_my_tardis



Series: Signal Flares [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bill is a bad influence, Gen, M/M, Mabel will do anything to protect her family, Minor Character Death, Older!Mabel, Protective!Bill, Protective!Mabel, badass!Mabel, dark!Mabel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-19 04:07:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3595734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/satan_copilots_my_tardis/pseuds/satan_copilots_my_tardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mabel is a girl made of sparkles and sequins but to help her family she’ll put down the glue gun and pick up a knife, as long as the rest of the Pines never find out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snicker Snack

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so Mabel will do some pretty awful things when she's gotta, but underneath the blood she's the same glitter-loving girl as she is in the show. Before the break she and Dipper are 17 after break they're 18. Title is from Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. Also Bill calls Mabel 'Falling Star' whenever he thinks she's doing something particularly disturbing.

“Industrial sized glitter glue.” Mabel states fiercely as she sits on the porch with Wendy and Soos. The college junior nods sagely at her answer and the handyman laughs. “Or I would buy a llama. A hundred llamas and then glitter glue!” She adds, visions of sparkinging mammals sticking to themselves and everything else in a mess of shimmer dancing through her mind, as she considers the question. “What would you do with a million dollars?”

“Oh I know!” Soos says with obvious excitement. “You know how they say there’s like seven people in the world who look exactly like you? Well I’d go and find them all and then get them to help me play pranks on people.”

“I would pay off my student loans and refinance my dad’s lumber business.” Wendy adds as they sit. “And buy a water park.”

“I think you guys are missing out on how awesome glitter covered llamas would be.” The three fall into an easy silence as they look up at the clouds. Grunkle Stan is off doing a tour of the forest, leading the walking wallets through the least dangerous parts and hoping that no real monsters jump out at them. “Where’d Dipper go?” She asks suddenly sitting up. Wendy glances around and Soos shrugs.

“Wasn’t he getting the soda?”

“Maybe he got distracted.” Wendy adds.

“Hmm, I’ll go check the kitchen.” Mabel pushes herself to her feet and straightens her skirt as she heads inside the Shack. “Dipper!” She calls as she enters the kitchen. At first glance she simply notes how empty it is and moves on up the stairs. “Dipper?” She pokes her head into their shared room and then knocks on the bathroom door, which swings open and proves to be just as empty as the other rooms. The brown haired girl makes a frustrated noise. Perhaps Dipper had been swept away by Bill or something. Mabel heads back downstairs into the kitchen intending to retrieve the sodas Dipper was supposed to bring.

She doesn’t see the fallen cans until she’s standing right in front of the refrigerator. Two Pitt cans have rolled under the counter and a third is sitting atop it. Mabel picks them up gingerly, willing them not to explode, before depositing them in the sink. A sharp feeling tugs at her stomach and goes cold when she notices the scratches across the floor. The Shack isn’t new by any stretch of the word and has accumulated much damage in the five years that the twins have been staying there, but these scratches are fresh. She kneels down to investigate and notes that they are not very deep at all. There are still splinters sticking up and she follows their paths. Her heart hammers in her chest when she realizes that they head towards the side door which is hanging open. There’s a splattering of blood against the frame and then the scratches stop. She’s nearly to the point of hyperventilating as she looks at the scarlet stains.

That’s Dipper’s blood. She has no doubt of that. Dipper was attacked in their kitchen and he was taken somewhere by something. Panic bubbles in her chest and her hands start to shake. Dipper was taken. Mabel doesn’t think before she starts chanting, she doesn’t have time to think, she doesn’t need to think, she just needs to find Dipper. She has to find him. The spell rises in her making her skin feel like it is being torn open. She wants to collapse or scream but the incantation just keeps pouring from her mouth and the power holds her up like the strings on a marionette. It takes fifteen minutes to cast and when it is complete Mabel would have collapsed if not for Wendy wrapping her arms around the younger girl’s middle and holding her up.

“Mabel what happened? We came in here to look for you and you were acting like you were possessed!” Wendy’s voice is thin with worry and Mabel vaguely registers that Soos is on the phone with someone, probably Stan.

“Dipper was kidnapped by the Gnomes!” She answers, freeing herself from the ginger’s hold. “I have to go after him.” Mabel doesn’t pause as she heads towards the door even as the other two protest.

“Mabel you can’t go alone!”

“Yeah, wait for us Ham Bone.” Magic tends to hang around on the body like lint after being used so Mabel has no trouble in gathering up the crumbs and using it to paralyze the others on the spot. Her muscles start to shake but she ignores the beginning fatigue.

“When Stan gets back tell him to summon Bill.” Dipper said that the demon had his own business to tend to that day but the demon has always come if they called. “I’m going to get Dipper back.” There’s a calmness in her tone that she doesn’t feel. Her hands shake as she walks from the Shack and heads into the forest. The Gnomes aren’t usually hard to find but they are being even more obvious than usual. She passes several on her way into the city, and the hairs on the back of her neck rise when she realizes that they are amassing behind her. Now she can’t turn and run even if she wanted to. When she breaches the clearing Jeff is waiting for her with a triumphant grin. “Where is he?” The words are a growl and she can feel magic sparking over her skin.

“Mabel, sweetheart, it’s so good of you to join us! I was just looking at wedding cakes--”

“WHERE IS MY BROTHER!?” The screech rebounds against the trees, physically knocking around several of the Gnomes as it echos. The skin on her fingers is starting to redden with burns as she exploits her borrowed power. Jeff pulls himself back up onto his stump and stands, rubbing his ears and looking furious.

“Bring him out, boys.” He orders with a snap of his fingers. A moment later a dozen Gnomes are dragging her brother from the woods, arms and legs tied, and blood running down the side of his head.

“Dipper!” Mabel tries to move forward and yelps when she’s yanked back by a firm tug on her hair. Her feet slip out from underneath her and she tumbles backwards, growling at the tiny creatures. She grabs the nearest one and throws him across the clearing. The small body hits the oak with a crunch and when his body falls to the forest floor it doesn’t move again. Mabel tries not to think about that. Her hands are starting to bleed from the exertion of keeping a channel open to access her magic.

“Mabel!” Dipper cries when she falls. “Mabel you have to run!” He cries out when the closet Gnome jabs a small wooden stake into his thigh.

“Fuck you! I’m not leaving you here!” She knocks away another Gnome with a bloody hand. Her arms are shaking violently as she tries to use them to hold herself off the forest floor as the creatures swarm her. “Get away from him!” A scream is torn from her throat when the channel suddenly snaps shut, her body too exhausted to hold it open any longer. Her muscles go limp for a split second and that’s all the Gnomes need. They tackle her, holding her limbs and keeping her pinned with a firm grip on her hair.

“Alight, good job boys, just keep holding her like that.” Jeff walks over to her then, looking down at her with a smug smirk. “Now now, sweetheart, I really didn’t want to do all of this. It would have been much better if you’d come to us willingly, but you’ve just been so stubborn,” he says the word like a curse, “these past five years. We had to take some more drastic measures. Especially seeing what a beauty that you’ve grown into.” He moves to touch her cheek and she snaps her jaws at him like a rabid dog. He yanks his arm out of reach before she rips it off and scowls. “Turn her head so she can see her brother.” She winces as her hair is pulled so that she’ll turn her head and sees Dipper struggling against his own bonds. “Now we’re going to play a little proposal game. I’m going to ask you to marry us and become our queen, and every time you answer incorrectly I’m going to have one of my boys stab your brother. Understood?”

“Mabel don’t say yes!”

“Guys.” Jeff orders offhandedly and another stake is lodged into Dipper’s arm causing him to scream.

“Mabel don’t say yes! You know deals in this forest are binding!” Jeff waves for the other Gnomes to stab the teenager again.

“Let’s add that every time your brother speaks we’ll stake him again. Now Mabel, will you marry us?” She looks at her brother from across the clearing. She sees the blood drying against his temple and the sheen of sweat on his face. His mouth is set into a firm line and his eyes are determined. Her throat goes dry as she answers.

“No.” They stab Dipper again and he just grits his teeth and takes it.

“Mabel, will you marry us?”

“No.” Her voice breaks and tears blur her vision when Dipper can’t help the small cry that escapes him.

“Will you marry us?”

“No.” This pattern goes on for ten minutes, each answer growing fainter as her brother begins to resemble a pincushion.

“You're really bad at this game, sweetheart.” Jeff says boredly some time later. “How much more do you think your brother can take?” From across the clearing Dipper gives a strained chuckle.

“Bring it on short stuff, my boyfriend hurts me more as foreplay.” The Gnome that moves to stab him hardly has time to raise his stake before he’s being engulfed in blue flames.

“Now now Pine Tree, I didn’t expect you were the kind to kiss and tell.” Bill’s voice is ever cheerful as he materializes in the clearing but his form is already glowing red.

“Bill,” The name falls from her lips like a blessing. His hands glow with flame and he takes a moment to annihilate the Gnomes surrounding Dipper and looks just as determined to kill the rest. “Bill no,” Mabel tries to shout but her throat is raw and exhaustion is starting to blur the edges of her vision. “Bill, Dipper needs to go to the hospital, leave them. Bill, please, Dipper needs help.” Her pleas must be barely audible over the screams of the fleeing creatures, but Bill does turn his attention to her. For a long moment she doesn’t think that he’s going to listen to her but then the flames around his hands dissipate and he floats over to her brother. Dipper’s head is lulling back and his eyes are almost closed.

“Is Mabel alright?” He murmurs as the demon stops in front of him.

“She’ll be fine, Dipshit. Just look at you. You’re not supposed to get this broken, Pine Tree.”

“Sorry.” Bill laughs as he gathers the broken body up and hovers him off the forest floor.

“Stan will be here in a second, will you be okay if I take Pine Tree to the hospital now, Shooting Star?” Mabel gives a weak nod.

“Get him help.” Bill looks oddly sympathetic for a moment.

“Stan will be here soon.” He assures her before vanishing with her brother in a flash of golden light.

“Mabel?! Mabel, sweetie, where are you?!”

“Stan!” Her voice is raw and she sees her Grunkle come crashing through the treeline a moment later. Her chest tightens until the tension in her body snaps like a rubber band, violently and suddenly. Fat tears roll down her cheeks as her Grunkle gathers her up in his arms and shushes her gently. She doesn’t stop shaking until she looses consciousness.

According to Soos she sleeps for three hours after being rescued. In that time Dipper has been admitted to the hospital and has been treated for his wounds while Soos had stayed behind to tend to her injuries so Stan could go check on his nephew.

“What happened to your hands, Ham Bone?” Soos asks as he helps her clean the dirt from her face.

“I used too much magic.” She hardly hears him. Her head is floating, reality coming in short bursts of awareness. She stares at her reflection in the mirror. Her face isn’t marred, and aside from the burns on her hands there’s no sign of what occurred earlier. Her stomach churns. Dipper won’t have that same simple recovery. He’ll be covered in scars for the rest of his life, his nerves might be so damaged that he’ll become essentially paralyzed. The thought makes her stomach lurch and before she knows what’s happening she’s bent over the toilet retching. Her hair sticks to the side of her face and she doesn’t have the time to think to pull it out of the way before another wave of nausea is washing over her and filling the bowl. Soos rubs her back until she stops retching and requests he give her a moment to collect herself. He hesitates for a moment but in a soft tone she adds,

“Please.” And he leaves the room. She flushes the sick away and rises to her feet and moves back towards the mirror. There’s vomit in her hair and some on her chin which she swipes at furiously. She doesn’t want to wash her hair. She wants to see Dipper. She needs to see her brother. The decision is made before she really processes what she was considering. Her fabric shears are sitting on top of her sewing kit and she reaches to pick up the heavy metal blades with bandaged hands. Her wrapped fingers are too thick and clumsy to get a firm grasp on the scissors and she gives a frustrated cry before tearing the bandages with her teeth. Her skin is raw and aching when she is finally able to grasp the scissors with sure hands. She doesn’t think as she moves back to the bathroom, taking handfuls of her long brown hair and hacking it off section by section. The sound the hair makes as the scissors pass violently through it is loud and accusatory in the empty bathroom. She should have been stronger, she should have been faster, she should have fought harder.

She throws the scissors into the sink when she’s finished. Her hair sticks out in jagged layers at her chin. She’s never had her hair short before and she doesn’t recognize herself for a moment. Good, she thinks. She doesn’t want to be the same girl who let her brother get tortured. Soos opens the door a moment later and looks horrified. She hesitates for a brief second before pulling the shears from the sink and tucking them into her waistband, hiding them under the hem of her sweater. Soos hasn’t regained his voice by the time she brushes past him.

“Let’s go to the hospital.”

Seeing Dipper hooked up to the heart monitors and IV does nothing to quiet her fury. Stan is talking with the doctor outside the room while Wendy and Soos give the siblings a moment alone under the guise of retrieving coffee. Dipper’s still unconscious, a fact for which Mabel is grateful, at least unconscious Dipper can’t be in pain. Unconscious he’s safe and she’s sure he’s with Bill. The demon won’t let him have nightmares after all that’s happened today. She holds his hand gently in her own and fights back the tears that are trying to rise.

“Are you sure you want to do that, Falling Star?” She knows immediately he’s used his foresight to predict her next move.

“I won’t let this happen to him again.” She whispers, aware of the demon now floating at her shoulder.

“You’re fresh out of magic. You’ll have to do it by hand.” The triangle warns.

“I don’t care.” Bill hums softly before snapping his fingers.

“At least let me make it a little easier for you.” The flesh on her hands knits back together flawlessly with a warm tingle.

“Can you heal him too?”

“That’s gonna take a little more time, kid, but yeah, I’ll make him good as new.” Bill glances out the window at the setting sun. “You’re gonna wanna get go going if you’re going through with this, Falling Star.”

“Don’t tell him.” She whispers. “When he wakes up don’t tell him, please.” The demon hesitates briefly but after noting the trembling in the girl’s shoulders he agrees.

“Course I won’t.” Mabel nods before leaving the room. She tells her Grunkle she’s going back to the Shack to get Dipper some books for when he wakes up and Stan lets her go without a fuss. It’s dusk when Mabel is making her way back to the Gnome city.

She watches under the cover of the shadows for a few long moments. They’re still burying their dead after Bill’s appearance with Jeff doling out orders. He circles the clearing a few times, instructing his people and inspecting their work. She waits until he’s just a few feet in front of her before she lunges, snatching the creature up and covering his mouth to cut off his shouts. She sprints back into the forest before the other Gnomes can notice the absence of their leader. She doesn’t stop until she thinks she’s far enough away that no one will hear the monster scream. Only then does she pin the Gnome to a trunk of a sturdy tree with one hand as she fishes out a handful of nails she’d grabbed from the Shack.

“Mabel! What are you doing?” Jeff must be able to read her intentions because he starts to squirm and cry out for help. He tries to bite her but, still holding the nails in that same hand, she grabs the shears and hits him across the face with the handles, making him cry out. While he’s dazed Mabel braces his body against the tree with her forearm and lines up a nail with his tiny hand before bringing the scissors down against it as a makeshift hammer. He screams and writhes against the bark but she doesn’t hesitate, she doesn’t pause. She lines up nail after nail until the creature is crucified. Jeff is crying and pleading but she doesn’t pay him any attention as she opens the scissors and grips one side tightly in her bloodied hands, wielding them like a knife.

“You hurt my brother. You took him from me and you hurt him.” Her voice shakes but her hands are steady as she brings the blade up to his throat. “No one goes after my brother because of me. No one. And after they find you they’ll all understand. Never again. I’m never going to let anyone hurt him ever again.”

“Mabel, please! Stop, please! We’ll never come near you, you’ll never see us again, please Mabel, please, don’t!” She’s never decapitated anything before, and even though Jeff’s neck and bones are miniscule she has to put far more effort into separating his head from his body than she thought she would. His body convulses for a few moments after she’s finished and she watches as the last bits of life seep from his form before she sets out carving her message into the bark.

“Never again.” She mutters to herself. “Never again.”

The moon is high by the time she makes it back to the hospital. Dipper is awake when she comes into the room but he doesn’t say anything when he sees the blood crusted under her nails or the tear tracks that mar her cheeks. He just holds her hand tightly and lets her cry silently beside him.

* * *

A year later and Dipper is fine, he’s been fine for months. But Mabel can’t forget what happened, it weighs on her every time she catches a glance at the amber coins that Bill has given her brother. Signal flares, because Bill knows that they’re still unable to take care of themselves and each other. She doesn’t want to rely on those little coins as their safety net because she knows, with a sureness that rings in her bones, that one day they won’t be enough. One day Bill won’t come no matter how much he likes them now, one day the risk will be too great, or he’ll have grown too bored and he won’t come to save them. Mabel thinks that Dipper already know this, even though she tries to assure him of the contrary, and she thinks Bill knows this too. That’s why he’s taken a special interest in training them both to face down any supernatural monster and not blink. But Bill isn’t the one who’s concocted her most recent plan.

“Bye guys, I’m going to Pacifica’s for a sleepover!” She has her backpack and sleeping bag with her and she hears a Stan’s and Dipper’s acknowledgements from deep within the house. She smiles softly before closing and locking the door behind her. The smile melts off her features when she turns and heads into the darkening treeline. Dipper’s always the one with his nose in a book but Mabel has found time to research on her own as well. The torn page in her back pocket seems heavy as she considers what she’s about to do. She’s always been the more magically inclined, according to Bill, her sense of whimsy and creative mind more adaptable and better able to compensate for the strain that is put on a magic user’s body. But she’s still only human, and the human body has limits as to how much raw power can be poured through it before spontaneously combusting. Having an amulet as a conduit won’t make her powers limitless, but she’ll be more powerful than she is now. She’ll be able to protect her family.

With that though as motivation she pushes back the bile that rises in her throat at what the ritual to create an amulet contains. Mabel walks for nearly an hour into the thick foliage just to be certain that she won’t be stumbled upon before setting down her pack. She picks up a stick and begins to create a sacred circle, having to pause twice in order to make it perfectly round. Her hands are shaking as she pulls jar after jar of supplies and brings them into the circle before sitting. Freshly harvested fairy wings, herbs, snake venom, and the bones of a bird are just a few of the things the ritual calls for. The young woman takes a deep breath to steady herself before she pulls the last item from her bag. The fabric shears are cold in her hand and she holds them for a long moment, inspecting them for any blemish. There’s no evidence that they were used to behead Jeff last summer but to her they still look like they’re covered in blood. She sets them down and begins to work.

The first part of the ritual consists of opening a channel to one of the many dimensions which contains magical energy and forcing the channel to remain open. She accomplishes this with ease, having used magic for extended periods of time with varying levels of success for the past three years. Her wariness stems from the second and third parts of the ritual, connecting the channel to an object, and sealing the bond. She takes the scissors in her hands and begins to chant the next few lines of incantations. It doesn’t take long for the effects to become observable. Small woodland creatures start to flock to the clearing. Rabbits, chipmunks, birds. Mabel watches them all with a heavy heart, but none of the creatures stray into the circle. So she waits. It’s only when a young doe enters the area that all of the other creatures scatter. She walks straight up to Mabel who fights back her tears with the thought that doing this will only make her stronger. She reaches out and rubs her hand gently over the doe’s head, along her muzzle, over the delicate curves of her ears. She looks the animal in its big gentle eyes and refuses to flinch away.

“Well I can’t say I was expecting this.” Mabel jumps and turns around to face the demon that’s intruded on her ritual.

“Go away.”

“Come on, Falling Star, I wanna stay, it just got interesting.” Bill reclines in midair, twirling his cane.

“I know what I’m doing.” She’s not sure if she’s telling him the truth.

“I can see that. I’m not here to stop you. I just wanted to see what you were working with. Where’s the rock, Falling Star?” Mabel hesitantly pulls out the amethyst stone and presents it for Bill’s inspection. The stone is a little larger than she would have liked, roughly the size of an egg, but it was all she could get her hands on in town. “Not bad, strong, suits your intentions, but I think it’s a little cold for you.” Bill pretends to rub his chin as he thinks. “Why don’t you try this instead.” He snaps his fingers and the stone in her hand is replaced with a smaller one with an almost marbled coloration of soft lavender, pink, and grey. “Lithium quartz, suits you much more, Falling Star. Now how about you finish up here.”

It takes her a moment to to tear her eyes away from the new stone and turn back to the doe. The animal has seated herself in the circle, resting her head on Mabel’s lap and that just makes everything so much harder. Her throat goes tight as she picks up the shears again. She takes a deep breath to steady herself, she doesn’t want the creature to suffer this time. This time she’ll be sure when she strikes. She is. The blades slide through muscle and flesh with ease and a warm gush of blood pours over her lap and over the stone in her other hand. The world goes unnaturally still. Her ears begin ringing in the silence and the air grows too thick to breathe. The energy around her grows so oppressive that she slumps forward under its weight. Then, as the last spurt of blood leaves the doe’s body, the world comes crashing back to life. The stone burns brightly in her hand and the shock-wave of forcing two points of reality to touch causes the ground to shake and the wind to roar for a few moments.

Then everything goes quiet. Mabel stares at the amulet in her hand and her mind is blank. It worked. She becomes vaguely aware that Bill is somewhere in the background clapping for her achievement but she doesn’t acknowledge him as her eyes move past the glowing gem to the dead doe still half in her blood covered lap. She thinks that she’s about to get sick but she fights it back.

“Hey,” She thinks Bill’s talking to her. “Hey, kid, come on, hello?” Mabel pushes away the doe’s body and begins to clean up her supplies. “Mabel?” The use of her name is enough to shock her into looking at him. “You okay, Falling Star?”

“Yeah.” She’s not but, she clutches the amulet in her fist, she will be.

“How about I take you home and you get cleaned up? I’ll make sure no one bothers you, Shooting Star.” There’s a kindness in his voice that Mabel still isn’t used to hearing so she just nods.

“Yeah. Thanks.” They walk back to the Shack together but Mabel hardly notices his presence. She can protect everyone now. She’ll never have to see any of them broken and bleeding. Never again.

**Author's Note:**

> Lithium Quartz is said to have healing and protecting powers as well as increase creativity.


End file.
